“Chick? You always call your boss a chick?
I reached up and swept her hair away from her ear, tucking it behind her shoulder then dipped forward to kiss her neck before my mouth stilled at the shell of her ear, “This here is my domain, as soon as you’ve eaten and rested I’ll show you who’s boss, Ms. Darsin,” I whispered seductively.
Valerie shivered, wiggled closer to me and rubbed her ass against my bulging hard-on. “I love when you make promises like that,” she whispered back, and turned her head quickly to see if Niamh was watching, “I’ll expect you scrubbed and waiting in your bed for me by 9:00 pm,” she grinned.
“Yes, ma’am, anything to please the boss,” I said and tried to contain a smile.
Chapter 16 ~ Valerie
Double take
It warmed my heart to see the level of understanding Flynn had of Teague’s needs, and his willingness to help him be accepted amongst his peers. It was clear that they had a mutual bond, and although I could see Flynn’s reservations by the way he looked at me, he pushed past that and did what he felt was right by him in suggesting Teague take him along to a father and son day at his school.
The way Flynn dealt with that situation showed me how in tune he was with the needs of a child. Niamh had worked for Flynn for a couple of years, which in Teague’s world was almost a third of his little life.
After a lot of persuasion, I had another appointment with the OBGYN Flynn arranged for me in Chicago. As if it was a deliberate choice of Flynn’s, Dr. Steven Hill was everything my guy in Iowa wasn’t. A small balding man, he had a gentle manner and almost thirty years under his belt in caring for pregnant women. When we entered the doctor’s office, I glanced at Flynn and saw his sneaky smirk indicating he’d scoped out whether the doctor was hot or not beforehand. He never growled the whole time we were there.
Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of repetition during the appointment, and by the time we left, I’d really warmed to my new doctor. When we stepped out onto the street, Flynn suggested we have a warm drink in a quiet coffee shop he knew that was tucked away at the end of an alleyway nearby.
It felt special that he was sharing a little of himself when he disclosed that he used to go there a lot in the early days of his new found fame. My heart squeezed when he said it was one of the very few places he could still go where no one recognized him.
As we sat talking, it felt special to hear him open up about times when we were apart, and the more I learned about him, the more I fell in love.
We spent an intimate forty-five minutes in the empty little café. It was more time than we’d managed in weeks, other than being in bed at the end of the day. We were constantly surrounded by people, and working in the confines of my family’s land, we’d both struggled to find quality time just for us.
Flynn texted Lee to tell him we were ready to be picked up, and then stood to pull my chair back for me. The bell over the door of the coffee shop signaled another customer had arrived. A young blonde woman carrying a small long dark-haired child made her way inside. Flynn rushed forward to hold the door for her, and I smiled at his manners. The girl glanced up at him, and the look on her face was pure shock.
At first, I thought her reaction was disbelief that Flynn Docherty the rock star was right there in front of her and glanced at Flynn to see how he was going to react. However, when I saw Flynn’s eyes searching her face, and then gazing at the child, it dawned on me that it was possible that he knew her. I glanced at the little girl there was something familiar about her. My heart stopped in my chest when my eyes met hers, and she had the same green eyes as both Flynn and me.
The blonde woman looked awkwardly at Flynn, and I noticed her face and neck had flushed. She acted flustered, and it would have been hard to miss the fearful look in her eyes.
“Hi, Flynn,” she said, swallowing several times nervously.
My immediate thought was she was an old flame of Flynn’s, and I immediately felt self-conscious. Flynn didn’t respond straight away and continued to stare at the child. His gaze was so intense, and that drew my attention to the child’s face again. His eyes registered shock even though he tried to hide it.
“H…Hi, Melanie,” he said, but never took his eyes off the child and continued to struggle for something to say.
“How have you been?” she asked.
Both of them continued to take awkward stances, mumble incoherently and Flynn shifted on his feet. The woman shifted the little girl on her hip several times until the child protested, and was placed on the floor. She smoothed down the child’s dress and held her hand before standing again. Her body language was amongst the most uncomfortable I’d seen in a long time.
Flynn cleared his throat and dropped his eyes and stared down at his shoes before tilting his head and glancing back in her direction, “Good,” she replied, to which he’d nodded too eagerly, and his eyes darted to the child yet again.
“So…you live around here?”
“Yeah, I have a place near the hospital. I moved here after I graduated to be near my parents.”
Their awkward, strained conversation continued for several minutes, and I felt deeply embarrassed standing there like I was intruding on their private conversation. I was sure that the conversation would have been much less stilted had I not been with him.
Eventually, Flynn cleared his throat and gave her a tight smile, “Well, it was great to see you, we’ve got to go. My driver is waiting for us, and if I’m not careful he’ll get a ticket,” he managed before he pulled open the door. Turning to face me, he never made eye contact but waited for me to pass him.
My heart thudded in my chest at the unspoken exchange I’d seen on each of their faces as I felt in the café—I couldn’t wait to be out of there. I’d never felt uneasy before when Flynn had met anyone, until that day, and by the time we’d reached the car I realized he hadn’t had the courtesy to introduce me to her or said her name.
As for her, she was stunningly pretty, tall, slim…willowy, in a supermodel kind of way. Blonde with striking blue eyes, she was someone who could carry off being a rock star’s girlfriend, unlike me the teenage kid playing at managing him with a baby on the way. When I thought about that, she’d looked like she’d walked in my shoes once. That thought made me worried about how loyal he’d really be in the future.
We sat in silence, and I noticed that Flynn seemed preoccupied. Normally, when we entered the car his hand would naturally seek mine out, but that day he made no attempt to be close to me. I sat patiently waiting for him to explain what had taken place back there, but he gave me no explanation and sat staring out of the window deep in thought.
There had been more to his relationship with the girl than either had let on in front of me. I’d have had to be a dead donkey to have missed what they said and didn’t say. Flynn leaned his head on the window and stared unfocused, deep in thought, and as though he was oblivious that I was even next to him.
Several minutes passed as he sat motionless apart from when his eyes closed slowly, and he swallowed. His thoughts had consumed him and affected his emotions. An uneasy feeling washed over me, but I allowed the scene I had witnessed to replay a few times in my mind until I figured out exactly what the interaction between Flynn and Melanie meant.
There was an air of dread in the car as my thoughts caught up. My heart almost exploded in my chest when I entertained the thought that somehow the child she’d been holding was Flynn’s. Whether that was the case or not, I’d had no idea, but by the look on his face he was shocked, and I wondered if he was at least entertaining the possibility.
My frightening thought left me wondering what I would do if it is, but it coincided with our arrival back at Flynn’s place. Lee pulled up at the house and stopped the car outside the main entrance.
“Go on ahead, babe. I have a couple of things I need to do this afternoon. I’ll be home in time for dinner.”
Flynn had never treated me that way before. There was no way he was
going to pat me on the head and tell me to run along, “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I said indignantly. He sat staring at me from the back seat and said nothing. Eventually, I realized he had no intention of responding, and I did as he said. Lee had been holding the door open and gave me a what-the-fuck look, but I had been too hurt to say anything else.
My chest felt tight as panic rose from my gut when I stepped onto the driveway. I wasn’t sure it if was due to insecurity for myself or the fear of losing him…maybe both. By the time I’d turned back to look at Flynn, Lee had closed the rear door and had slid back into the driver’s seat.
Riddled with fear, my heart banged hard and fast against my chest as I watched his car retrace its path back toward the open countryside, and I knew he was going to her. I breathed in deeply in my effort to control the nauseas feeling that swept over me.
There had been so much we needed to say to each other, but I’d felt his reluctance to address the situation and a tiny part of me thought what I didn’t know couldn’t hurt me, but that had made it worse. Maybe his avoidance had been because neither of us wanted to face the woman because she was significant to Flynn.
When I went inside the house was quiet, too quiet, and I suddenly needed to talk it through with someone. Digging into my bag, I found my cell and called Simone. Her phone rang a few times and went to voicemail, so I left her a message asking her to call me back. Frustrated, I ended the call and threw my cell on the console table in the hallway.
Climbing the stairs, my anger began to overwhelm me and tears clouded my vision as I made my way to our room. I’d never felt so low since the death of my brothers. I’d left the house that morning feeling so optimistic about our future together, and it had only taken a few short hours for my world to be rocked once again by fate interfering in my life.
What do I do if that little girl is Flynn’s? What will Flynn do? Could I cope with Flynn having a child with another woman? Was she a threat to me? I had so many questions and worst of all I even wondered if there were any other secrets. What else don’t I know about?
Crying had the same effect as always, and before long I’d exhausted myself. I slipped under the comforter and buried my head feeling desolate. I felt deserted by Flynn when to my mind, he should have spoken to me about what was in his head, and wondered if he’d even thought about what may have been running through mine. My brain hurt from the mental impact of the earlier event until my head couldn’t cope with the endless possibilities from potential scenarios that could destroy what Flynn and I had.
When I woke, it was dark outside. Pushing the comforter off, I swung my legs to the side of the bed and sat up. My eyes felt puffy and stung from the salty tears I’d shed. When I lifted my cell to see the time, it was almost 6:45 pm. I padded to the door and stepped out into the hallway and walked to the edge of the stairs.
The front entrance hallway at Flynn’s was dark apart from a small section bathed by the light that came from the kitchen. I could hear Teague talking there with Niamh. Crouching slowly, I felt behind me as I sat on the top step, lay my chin on my knees, and pulled my cashmere cardigan tightly around me. I waited to hear Flynn’s voice. When the only voices I heard were Niamh and her son, I made my way to the kitchen. They were seated quietly at the kitchen counter as she helped Teague make what resembled a model boat.
“Hey, is Flynn home?” I asked trying to sound cheerful.
Niamh almost jumped out of her skin, “Jeez, you almost gave me a heart attack. I had no idea anyone was home. I thought you guys had forgotten to set the alarm when you left this morning, and there’s no car outside.”
“No, I’ve been here most of the afternoon. Isn’t Flynn home yet?”
Niamh shook her head, “Sorry, no, and I can’t hang around much longer because I need to get this little tiger into his bath soon.”
Her eyes softened, and I guess she had taken in my puffy eyes and pale skin, “Are you okay, hon?” I nodded and shrugged my shoulders as I tried to hide my disappointment about Flynn’s behavior toward me. I hadn’t wanted to want to cry in front of her son.
Every hour that passed that he didn’t come home made me more insecure and brought my fears to the surface. Niamh left, and I tried Simone’s cell again to see if she was home. It went to voicemail for the second time, and I left a message for her to call me back. I felt abandoned and turned to the one person I knew I could rely on, Kayden.
His cell rang once before he answered, “Hello gorgeous, missing us already?” he said with a smile in his voice.
When I heard his familiar voice, my throat closed from fighting back all the emotion I’d suppressed since Flynn had gone.
“Hey,” was all I could manage.
“So what’s up? Are you having a great time in Chicago?”
I tried to talk, but the tears clogged my speech and a strangled sob escaped instead.
“Jesus, what’s wrong, Valerie?” the concern in Kayden’s voice had replaced any light-heartedness from before.
I hurriedly explained the exchange between Flynn and the girl, and his immediate departure once we’d gotten home. “My gut feeling is, it isn’t good, Kayden,” I sobbed, “The little girl looks kind of familiar and has the same eye color as us. Let’s face it, it was like looking in the mirror,” I said between sobs.
“Stop crying, Valerie. Let me call him and find out what the deal is. I agree he should never have run out on you, but knowing how he feels about you, I think whatever is going on he wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
I ended the call with Kayden after he’d promised to call me back as soon as he’d spoken to Flynn. Kayden still hadn’t been told about the baby, and I felt guilty for offloading without explaining why I was in such a state.
Minutes later, I slipped my shoes on and made my way to the front door. I’d needed some air. It was a cold, frosty late February night and the icy pathways around the house glistened white with hard white frost. Normally the scene would have made me feel happy, but that night it just added to my worries because I’d thought he was driving around in that weather. I turned to go back inside and noticed the gym light was on. Thinking Simone was down there with Craig I grabbed my coat, pulled the front door closed, and made my way to find her.
When I pulled the gym door open, heat blasted me, the difference in temperature. It made my cheeks sting and warmed me instantly. Although the gym itself was air conditioned, Flynn had a small area between the front door and the sauna that had a couple of small tables and bucket-type chairs dotted around them, and I was walking through this when I heard Craig’s voice, it was barely audible and I couldn’t make out what he was saying. As I walked closer, Simone’s voice broke into whatever he was saying.
“If that’s how you feel Flynn, you don’t have a choice.”
There was no way I was hanging around in the background this time. I pulled the door open and walked quickly to the center of the gym.
“What should you tell me, Flynn? What is this? What don’t you have a choice about?” I said, barely able to contain how furious I was that he’d gone to talk to other people instead of being and home discussing it with me.
Simone immediately came over to stand beside me, and placed her hand on my forearm, “I’m sorry, Valerie, I told him he should be talking to you about this, but I think Flynn’s in shock himself at the moment.”
“Yeah? And why is that, Flynn?” I said directing my gaze straight at his. I’m sure my face softened when I saw the pain and hurt he was carrying.
“Valerie, I can’t even begin to tell you—”
“Apparently not, but you don’t seem to have had that issue telling other people,” I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.
Inside, my world was shattered, but Flynn continued to stand both motionless and speechless, staring at me. That was the moment I felt for the second time in my life, things would never be the same.
Chapter 17 ~ Flynn
Haunted
After spending the most amazi
ng hour of my life at the doctor’s office where we’d heard the life we’d made between us fill the room with his fast little heartbeat, Valerie and I left riding high about our future as a family.
We’d had a free day that day, and had planned to spend it at home after a quick visit to meet the obstetrician. My mouth was dry, so I suggested having a hot drink before we headed back, and I had taken her to a little café I knew. It was fabulous being able to sit in a public place and just be a normal couple.
After half an hour, we started to leave when I saw a young mom struggle to open the door of the café with a small child in her arms. Rushing for the handle, I pulled the glass door wide to allow her to enter hazard free, and when her eyes met mine a sordid memory flashed through my mind as I recognized who she was. Fuck.
My eyes ticked over her pretty face and darted to the small child she was carrying in her arms. Meanwhile, my brain automatically calculated how long ago it had been since I’d shared a long passionate night of no-strings sex with her. I’d reckoned it was about three and a half years ago, and she was one of a few girls from my many one-night stands that I’d never been able to forget. It wasn’t that I’d had felt more for her, it was just that particular occasion had even more significance because of the circumstances surrounding it…and people involved.
Standing facing my past while my future was right beside me felt shameful. My heart thumped wildly in my chest while my eyes darted between Melanie’s face and the face of her child. She had the same beautiful heart shape to it, but unlike her, she had the same unusual emerald eyes like me…and Martin.
There was no question of the child not being Melanie’s something in her haunted facial expression, awkward glance, and the flushed look she bore couldn’t have said guilty any clearer than if it had been written on her forehead.
The possibility that I’d fathered a child I knew nothing about hit me like a truck. It made me realize what a fucking horrible guy I was back then. I hadn’t given any of those girls a second thought, and as I stared at the one in front of me…it had made me feel sick to think she’d weathered all the consequences of our actions on her own.
Ready For Flynn, Part 2 : A Rockstar Romance (The Ready For Flynn) Page 15